Tapered roller bearings are already long known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,130,258 describes tapered roller bearings of tandem-type, X-type and O-type construction, in which the tapered rollers are supported by substantially identically-designed single-part or multi-part inner rings and substantially identically designed multi-part outer rings. Said document also discloses a four-row tapered roller bearing of X-type or O-type construction in which the in each case axially outer tapered roller row and the adjacent axially inner tapered roller row have tapered rollers which are arranged so as to be of equal size and aligned in the same direction, and in which the pressure angles of said tapered rollers are accordingly in each case identical.
A disadvantage of said tapered roller bearing is that it is composed of a very large number of individual parts, which increases the assembly expenditure and the production costs.
In contrast, DE 41 42 802 A1 discloses a four-row tapered roller bearing which provides the combinations of an O-arrangement with an X-arrangement, by virtue of the tapered rollers being arranged between an axially multi-part inner ring and an axially multi-part outer ring, and the inner roller rows being formed in an O-arrangement and the adjacent outer roller rows being formed in an X-arrangement. Said tapered roller bearing is also disadvantageously composed of a comparatively large number of individual parts.
It is additionally known from practice that bearings with an O-arrangement gives the bearing point a large support width, and these bearings are as a result very rigid and can absorb large tilting moments. In contrast, bearings with an X-arrangement have a small support width and rigidity, and their ability to absorb tilting moments is accordingly lower than in the case of an O-arrangement as well.
It is additionally known that, in the case of four-row tapered roller bearings, one bearing point alone constitutes a statically indeterminate mounting, which itself can lead, as a result of the elasticity of the surrounding components and of the rolling bodies, to a different rolling body loading and, as a result, to a reduced service life of the bearing system. The invention described below addresses this.